SOU’WESTER EVENTS!

Discover what’s happening during your next stay or plan a visit around our free live music, workshops, wellness offerings and more!

Oct
5
Tue
After-School Workshop: RED ROOTS & BUGS with Iris Sullivan @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center
Oct 5 @ 3:30 pm – Oct 7 @ 5:30 pm
After-School Workshop: RED ROOTS & BUGS with Iris Sullivan @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center

Madder and Cochineal are ancient and rare red dyes with fascinating stories. One comes from a root, the other an insect – both profoundly impacted the world. This week we will explore these fabulous dyes using printing and painting to create patterns that appear magically in the dye pot. This class is great taken in conjunction with the other dye workshops, but not required. Materials fee for this workshop is $30

Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.

  • Youth After-School Program Ages 7-11
  • T, W, Th 3:30-5:30 with possible transportation from LB Elementary
  • $75/week + materials fee
  • Sign up for all youth Natural Dye Workshops (four weeks and four Saturdays) 25% off
  • 20% off when you sign up for all After-School Workshops!
  • Sibling discount an additional 10% off.
  • *Scholarships Available
Oct
9
Sat
Saturday Workshop: DYE TALES & SILK FIREWORKS with Iris Sullivan @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center
Oct 9 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Saturday Workshop: DYE TALES & SILK FIREWORKS with Iris Sullivan @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center

Once upon a time… traditional dye stuffs are filled with myths and stories, in this workshop we will hear some of them, then use the raw dyes to create bold colors that look like fireworks on large square silk scarves that can be worn, or used to make a play cape. This class is great taken in conjunction with the other dye workshops, but not required. Materials fee for this workshop is $30

Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.

  • Adult/Youth Saturday Workshop (under 12 accompanied by an adult)
  • $50 + materials fee
  • Sign up for all Natural Dye Saturday Workshops (four total) 25% off
  • *Scholarships Available
Music: Faustina Masigat @ The Sou'wester
Oct 9 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Faustina Masigat at The Sou’wester
Frustrated by academia and emotionally raw from a breakup, Faustina Masigat stepped away from her peers in her mid-twenties. She had come to realize that her personal and artistic maturation had been stifled by her relationships and her overly angular traditional musical schooling. She knew she needed to spend more time alone, committed to a process of unlearning, before she could move forward. As she peeled back the rigid layers of her youth, she began to write the songs that, a few years later, would make up her debut record. Seeking honesty over perfection, her approach to composition became much more intuitive; seated in the natural expression of not only her emotional life, but also that of a spiritual life, an expression of her own femininity, and a means of self improvement through self reflection. She became obsessed with the old, forgotten, second-hand guitars she would find in the “As Is” section of local music shops, believing that magic and songs still lived in the beat-up wood. One album track, “Willie Nelson”, manifested, fully formed, from one of these guitars – an ancient, labeless individual that she called “Red.” 
 
The songwriting on her self-titled debut is all at once heartbreaking, intelligent, meditative and elegant – centered around a voice that is difficult to attach genre to. There is a quiet intensity running through the world that Faustina creates: sweet and heavy, a touch of angst, brutally honest, smoldering. The album is understated, arranged as to allow Faustina’s effortless rapport with pedal steel player Tucker Jackson (The Minus 5, The Delines) to shine clearest. It’s a spacious and lush debut, with all of her vulnerabilities laid bare in songs hemmed together with fragile intimacy.
 
Faustina Masigat is out now on Mama Bird Recording Co. It was recorded by Rian Lewis, mixed by Ben Nugent and mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk, all in Portland, Oregon.
Oct
12
Tue
After School Workshop: ADVENTURE BAGS – The Titans, Star Magic & Tree Secrets with Iris Sullivan @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center
Oct 12 @ 3:30 pm – Oct 14 @ 5:30 pm
After School Workshop: ADVENTURE BAGS - The Titans, Star Magic & Tree Secrets with Iris Sullivan @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center

Did you know that iron comes from stars? Why is Titanium named after the Titans? Find out more during this week as we will gather leaves to print onto cotton bags with the help of Iron and titanium. Because nature adventurers and treasure hunters always need a good bag. This class is great taken in conjunction with the other dye workshops, but not required. Materials fee for this workshop is $30.

Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.

  • Youth After-School Program Ages 7-11
  • T, W, Th 3:30-5:30 with possible transportation from LB Elementary
  • $75/week + materials fee
  • Sign up for all youth Natural Dye Workshops (four weeks and four Saturdays) 25% off
  • 20% off when you sign up for all After-School Workshops!
  • Sibling discount an additional 10% off.
  • *Scholarships Available
Oct
16
Sat
Saturday Workshop: FEAST TABLES & TREASURE MAPS with Iris Sullivan @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center
Oct 16 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Saturday Workshop: FEAST TABLES & TREASURE MAPS with Iris Sullivan @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center

Botanical printing, or Eco-Printing, is a way to make clear images of leaves, like portraits of plants. In this workshop we will print leaves onto cloth and paper to create table runners, and a leaf printed paper for drawing treasure maps on. This class is great taken in conjunction with the other dye workshops, but not required. Materials fee for this workshop is $30.

Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.

  • Adult/Youth Saturday Workshop (under 12 accompanied by an adult)
  • $50 + materials fee
  • Sign up for all Natural Dye Saturday Workshops (four total) 25% off
  • *Scholarships Available
The Hackles: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Oct 16 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

The Hackles: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

“We’re processing a lot of things going on in our world right now,” reflects Kati Claborn during a respite from touring. Along with her partner Luke Ydstie, Claborn is striving to make sense of the present by looking to the past in The Hackles’ upcoming album, A Dobtrich Did As A Dobritch Should, out on Jealous Butcher Records on November 8, 2019. “We’re looking at the big picture through individual lives,” says Claborn.  In an era rife with discord, The Hackles are using melodic, shimmering indie folk to chronicle means of control and autonomy through idiosyncratic narratives.

 Ydstie and Claborn first met in Portland in the mid-2000s after Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski of Blind Pilot recruited additional band members to flesh out the band. Still members of Blind Pilot today, Ydstie and Claborn first met at these initial band practices, and now live in Astoria, Oregon with their five-year-old daughter. After discovering how well each of their creative processes’ enrich one another’s, Ydstie and Claborn decided to form their own musical project. “I think one of the reasons why it’s so successful when Luke and I write together is that we feel very safe and open,” says Claborn. “Both of us feel like we can throw out any idea and it’s okay. We can try anything.” Co-producer Adam Selzer expands this environment of experimentation. “Going into the mixing process, we gave Adam free reign to do whatever he wanted, and he made a lot of interesting mixing choices and added effects that had a huge effect on how the album turned out.”

Though The Hackles’ upcoming record title might at first seem imbued in mystery, the  eccentric name is a nod to the life and death of 20th century Bulgarian circus impresario, Al Dobritch, who appears most markedly in “And The Show Goes On.” The chief producer of famed Circus Circus Casino in Las Vegas, Dobritch made a name for himself after escaping World War II and settling in America, eventually rubbing elbows with celebrities and marrying film star Rusty Allen. His gilded life came to a dark end when he was charged with kidnapping and, soon after, jumped to his death on the Las Vegas strip. “Dobritch went through so many crazy things in his life,” says Claborn, “And though he was able to persevere and create this incredible life, it goes to show that at the end, there are sometimes things you can’t control.”

The interwoven notions of predestined fate, as well as the hopeful antithesis of regaining power over one’s personal circumstances, stream throughout The Hackles’ upcoming release, complemented by the album’s serene sound. The duo’s propensity for glowing chords shines, though it soon becomes apparent that the expert delicacy of the couple’s guitar work only barely contains the graceful, mounting power prevalent in the meeting of Claborn and Ydstie’s voices. Similar to the tug-of-war stories that Claborn and Ydstie portray, the dynamism of the duo’s vocals never overpowers the tranquility of the chords below. Instead, both strengths support and enhance one another. “There’s a thread going through the album about the things that control us in our lives and the things that we’re able to take back,” surmises Claborn, “It’s about the impact of inevitability, the webs you can weave, and the webs that weave you.”

Oct
19
Tue
After-School Workshop: DRAWING & PAINTING THE NATURAL WORLD with Jess Graff @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center
Oct 19 @ 3:30 pm – Oct 21 @ 5:30 pm
After-School Workshop: DRAWING & PAINTING THE NATURAL WORLD with Jess Graff @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center

In this workshop students will investigate and observe natural specimens to create detailed nature-based artworks. Scientific specimens may include animal skulls, insects, plant materials, and other natural materials. Students will work in pencil and pen with options to include ink and watercolor media. This program teaches various art making techniques while encouraging observational skills, critical thinking, literacy, spatial awareness, and informing on natural sciences. Materials fee for this workshop is $3.

Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.

  • Youth After-School Program Ages 7-11
  • T, W, Th 3:30-5:30 with possible transportation from LB Elementary
  • $75/week + materials fee
  • 20% off when you sign up for all After-School Workshops!
  • Sibling discount an additional 10% off.
  • *Scholarships Available
Oct
23
Sat
Saturday Workshop: DRAWING & PAINTING THE NATURAL WORLD with Jess Graff @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center
Oct 23 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Saturday Workshop: DRAWING & PAINTING THE NATURAL WORLD with Jess Graff @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center

In this workshop students will investigate and observe natural specimens to create detailed nature-based artworks. Scientific specimens may include animal skulls, insects, plant materials, and other natural materials. Students will work in pencil and pen with options to include ink and watercolor media. This program teaches various art making techniques while encouraging observational skills, critical thinking, literacy, spatial awareness, and informing on natural sciences. Materials fee for this workshop is $3

Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.

  • Adult/Youth Saturday Workshop (under 12 accompanied by an adult)
  • $50 + materials fee
  • *Scholarships Available
Oct
24
Sun
Joe Kaplow: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Oct 24 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Joe Kaplow: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

http://joekaplow.net

Singer/songwriter Joe Kaplow lives in a four-acre mansion in the hills of Santa Cruz. Of course, he shares the space with a group of hippies, some rats, and some very dilapidated floors and walls… but it does have a swimming pool.

For Kaplow, becoming a full-time musician – and adopting the lifestyle that often accompanies it – didn’t happen by accident. Having moved from farm life and family in New Jersey to the rich Santa Cruz music community, Kaplow has often found himself living paycheck to paycheck as he departs on three-month U.S. solo tours, records music in various bedrooms of the house where he lives, rehearses with his new band and writes constantly, dedicating himself fully and lovingly to the craft of songwriting.

Kaplow’s debut album Time Spent In Between is simultaneously grounded and exploratory; the music is equal parts intimate and expansive. With raw instrumentation and earthy vocal melodies, Time Spent In Between is rich with folk songwriting brilliance.

 
Oct
26
Tue
After-School Workshop: THE OCEAN IN CLAY with Jess Graff @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center
Oct 26 @ 3:30 pm – Oct 28 @ 5:30 pm
After-School Workshop: THE OCEAN IN CLAY with Jess Graff @ Sou'Wester Arts & Ecology Center

Explore all things underwater in this fun, adaptable clay workshop! Learn basic ceramic hand-building skills while exploring underwater themes! Participants will create their pieces using pinch, coil, slab, and pebble styles of hand-building. Students will also experiment with texture tools, both nature-made and human-made, to create different effects in their clay work. This program informs on natural sciences, encourages special awareness, and builds kinesthetic skills. Materials fee for this workshop is $5

Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.

  • Youth After-School Program Ages 7-11
  • T, W, Th 3:30-5:30 with possible transportation from LB Elementary
  • $75/week + materials fee
  • 20% off when you sign up for all After-School Workshops!
  • Sibling discount an additional 10% off.
  • *Scholarships Available